Country prepares to fall silent again to remember those killed in 7/7 attacks

The number 30 double-decker bus in Tavistock Square

Published:14:54Sunday 05 July 2015Updated:09:52Monday 06 July 2015

Share this article

Ten years on from the devastating attacks of July 7, 2005, Britain will fall silent to remember the 52 people murdered that day.

Days after observing a minute’s silence for the victims of the Tunisia beach massacre, the country will again pause in memory of those killed at 11.30am on Tuesday.

Leeds Peace Ambassadors visiting a memorial to the 7/7 victims

The principal focus will be on a memorial service at St Paul’s Cathedral, attended by families of those affected, which will be broadcast on television from 10.30am,

Emergency services staff, including officers from the Met Police, London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service, will also attend.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson is expected to be there, along with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.

In Leeds, residents will be invited to join in a minute’s silence and civic and faith leaders will hold a low-key reception in the city centre for about 30 invited guests.

Elsewhere hundreds of people are expected to gather in Cross Flatts Park in Leeds for a concert tomorrow night.

The area became the focus of international media attention in the wake of the 7/7 attacks because three of the four bombers – Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain – had connections to the neighbourhood.

Back in London bus drivers have been told they can pull over if it is safe to do so.

Although tube trains will continue running, public address announcements will be suspended and passengers will be reminded of the silence.

Later, a public service will be held at 2.30pm in the capital’s Hyde Park, although some areas will be reserved for survivors and the families of those who died in the attacks.

Wreaths will be laid earlier in the day at the 52 pillars that stand in the park as a permanent memorial to the outrage, and a second service will be held in the afternoon with readings, music and flowers.

The London bombings represented the worst ever terror attack on British soil.

Leeds bombers Khan, 30, Tanweer, 22, Hussain, 18, and Jermaine Lindsay, 19, who had lived in Huddersfield, detonated bombs on two Circle line Tubes, a Piccadilly line train and a number 30 bus. Twenty-six people died in the bombing at Russell Square on the Piccadilly line, while six died at Edgware Road on the Circle Line and seven died in the Aldgate Circle line bombing.

Thirteen people died in the bus bomb, which was detonated at Tavistock Square. All four explosions took place within an hour.

The anniversary comes as the only Muslim survivor of the attacks urged the country to stand together against the growing threat of Islamophobia the way it did against terrorism a decade ago.

Sajda Mughal said she has suffered death threats and online abuse because of her faith since surviving the UK’s first suicide bombings at the age of 22, and says her experience is increasingly echoed by friends, family and colleagues.

Mrs Mughal, now a mother-of-two from Wood Green, north London, still vividly remembers the searing sense of relief she felt when a distant voice called “it’s police, we’re coming to get you” as she cowered among the debris of a derailed Tube carriage “preparing myself for death”.